Player Interview: Allinstevie

Name, Age and Location:

Stephen Devlin, 25, from Omagh, Northern Ireland.

Screen Name and why you chose it?

Allinstevie for obvious reasons.

What poker sites do you currently play on now?

I play mainly on PokerStars and Fulltilt and one or two tournies a week on UltimateBet.

When or what started you off in playing poker? How were your early experiences in learning how to play?

I have been playing different variants of poker my whole life, but started playing a bit more seriously when I was around 15. Then, we usually just played various dealer's choice cash games once a week in friends' houses. This continued until I was around 19/20 when NLH became very popular and we started playing mini tournaments weekly instead of our regular cash games.

During the next few years various local tournaments were started which I started to play. Friends of mine kept telling me about online poker and how I would really enjoy it, so in January '06 after a really good few months at the local tournament scene decided to invest in a laptop and get my broadband hooked up.

How did you start off your online bankroll?

I deposited $100 or so and started playing mainly $5 SNGs and small buy-in MTTs. After a few weeks I had lost that and deposited again, quickly lost that, and thought this was turning into a rather expensive habit but decided to give it one more shot and deposited one more time. A few days later I won a $20 180 seater SNG on PokerStars for slightly over $1k and a few days later finished 16th in the Sunday Million for $5k and I now had a bankroll I could work with.

So what factors/skills /attributes got you to that level?

Looking back on it now I played extremely nitty (super tight) back then and just really waited on good cards, but with the help of the various forums and discussing hands etc with top players I feel my game has drastically improved.

How much money have you made from online poker in the last two years? Biggest cash?

Hmmm, a bit. My biggest cash was $70k in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up.

Do you play Sit ‘n’ Gos and, if so, which ones are your favourites?

I used to play a lot of the $20 180 seater SNGs on Stars and still play them from time to time. PokerStars has recently added $100 variants of these and if they ever fill up I will probably be a regular at them.

If you play MTTs what are your golden rules?

Go with your reads, and always play to win.

Do you play live, and if so, where/when did you play? Best live results?

I want to get into the live poker scene a lot more in the coming years. I have played the WSOP main event the last two years as well as a few of the prelims this year but no big results as yet. Have already qualified for the EPT Barcelona in August and will hopefully play a few other EPT events this year too.

Has there ever been a time when things just weren't going right for you while playing poker? What was your worst run ever and what did you do to get through these times?

With the nature of tournament poker, you're always going to go on good runs and bad runs. One week your running super hot and think your indestructible and the next you can really start to doubt yourself. But yeah, I’ve had some pretty ugly bad runs - worst was probably losing around $20k in a month in MTTs. I just battled through it and told myself as long as I kept getting my money in good then it was gonna change around.

Who is your favorite professional poker player and why?

I really like Daniel Negreanu - he can make some awesome reads, although if he just didn’t pay off the guy after reading the hand perfectly he’d probably be the complete player.

Which adjectives best describe your style of play?

Patient yet aggressive.

There’s got to be something that sticks out in your mind as a particularly good mindset or a strategy that has helped you in tournament play thus far. What is it?

With the nature of tournaments, you are gonna have to be in for the long haul as some of them can last 10 hours. It can be tough to not lose focus and let maybe one bad beat affect your play. I try to always stay focused and take it one hand at a time.

What do you consider is your biggest accomplishment in poker?

Probably winning the big Sunday $100 rebuy on PokerStars, which is widely regarded as having one of the toughest fields anywhere online.

Do you have one memorable hand you would like to share?

Three times I have got down to the final two tables in the PokerStars Sunday Million only to have K-K cracked by A-x in pots for the chip lead.

Which online poker players do you consider to be the best? And why?

I really like to watch Imperium and Lilholdem and think they are two of the toughest opponents out there at the minute.

What are some tips and tricks you can give out to the readers that might improve there games/build a bankroll? What do you suggest is the best ways to improve?

Never put more than 5% of your bankroll on the line at any one time. Try to get as much experience as possible and always be willing to evolve your game depending on your table.

Also, by joining one of the many poker discussion forums available you will always have people to discuss various problem hands with.

Do you want to say ‘Hi’ to anyone?

I'd like to give a shoutout to all the various friends I’ve made through poker, especially the guys who have to listen to all my bad beat stories through messenger especially acecatcher26 and deadeyed1.

THE OTHER TOP ONLINE PLAYERS

Top US Players

Top Swedish Players

Top German Players

Top Norwegian Players

Top Canadian Players

Top UK Players

Top Female Players

Top Best of the Rest Players

Read all about MTT Wizards here